Berkeley Lab To Help With $122M Sunlight Fuel Project

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory will house part of a $122 million Department of Energy project that seeks to turn sunlight into biofuels.

The project, named the â¿¿Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis,â¿ will be led by the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, which will also house the southern site. Lawrence Berkeley Lab will have the second site.

DOE will spend the $122 million over five years, â¿¿subject to Congressional appropriations.â¿

Scientists will seek to copy photosynthesis, the process by which plants make fuel from sunshine, to create fuels. They hope to make â¿¿fuel from the sun 10 times more efficiently than typical current crops.â¿

Nathan Lewis of Caltech will lead the program. Peidong Yang, a researcher at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and at U.C. Berkeley, will also be involved.

Other partners on this project include the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, and the University of Californiaâ¿¿s Berkeley, Santa Barbara, Irvine and San Diego campuses.